A birthday of sorts

I think I've come a long way since my very first post a year ago, yet I still have so much more to learn and do. For instance, the first segment of Project Spectrum will end tomorrow and my BFF socks are still not done. It's been slow going for me, but then this is the WIP that always gets bumped for other things. But I love this Fleece Artist merino, so I will plug on and finish at least before the next Rockin' Sock Club installment comes in.

And what's currently distracting me from mys BFF socks? To the left, it's Louet Gems Pearl in Willow I bought from a lys closing sale. I'm knitting/swatching Cookie A's Twisted Flower pattern in the large size with the pattern stated size 2 (2.75 mm) needles. I'm not sure how the yarn on this size will turn out 'til I get more into the pattern as I only just finished the cuff. On the right it's Knitpicks (KP) Essentials Tweed in Marin a on KP size 1 (2.50 mm) 32" circulars that I'm practicing the Magic Loop method on.

But the biggest distraction has been monkey1's Modello Giuditta capelet. Her birthday is coming up and I would like to finish it by then. I still haven't decided how to finish the bottom edge so I'll see if she has any preferences. Right now it's a debate between a few rows of garter which'll "match" the vertical edges & collar or a crocheted shell or floret border.


Apparently I lied about having scratched my yarn buying itch at Stitches West, but it is sock yarn. ;) Below is my first Loopy Ewe purchase of Zen String's sport merino (wonders if its Louet Gem sport base) in Opal. Very cute and Easter-y colors. Besides, I'll just consider it my blogiversary gift.

Squeeeeeee!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting content to indulge my geeky girlie gushing for my favorite dulcet-toned singer:

My momentos from the concert - Sweeney Dog (this one is signed), obviously for his pet and his love of musical theater and for the composer Stephen Sondheim, the usual t-shirt and the program w/lots of glossy pics of Josh. DH bought the concert tickets last November as part of my suite of b-day gifts and after the concert ended, DH tells me "And now ends your birthday celebration of 2006." Heh.

Monsoon passing

My first Rockin' Sock Club socks are done! The outsides:


The insides:

Recap:
Yarn: STR Monsoon medium weight
Pattern: Inside Outs by Kaci
Needle sizes: Knitpicks circulars (2-24") in size 0 (2.00 mm) for the feet, size 1 (2.50 mm) for the toes, heels & first 19 rows of the legs, and 2 (3.00 mm) for the rest of the legs

Final thoughts:

This pattern is a yarn eater. I used up all of the smaller second ball and used up quite a bit of the leftovers of the first ball. Obviously the knot in my skein wasn't that close to halfway. :p

Now on to finish my BFF socks and monkey1's Modella Giuditta. I'm also itching to start Cookie A's Twisted Flower pattern in the Willow Louet Gems Pearl I snagged at Yarn in Alameda's closing sale (gee, blogless L & I went there a lot), just in time for the April/May Project Spectrum color pool.

ETA: This is how much Monsoon yarn I have left-over. Good thing I don't' like to knit the leg portion longer than 6" long (in these socks, the unstretched length).

1 of 2000...

sock knitters knitting the same yarn and mostly the same pattern...

but clearly not getting the exact same results. Sock #1 of my Inside Outs in STR Monsoon is done. Helped greatly by the KP size 2's (3.00 mm) needles I used for the leg. I did about 3 full repeats +5 rows to end for the leg pattern.

So on to sock #2. I sorta knew I started on the other half of the color progression (see the skein opened up in my earlier post), but I decided to go w/it and see how that would play out. Right now it looks like I'm going to get my fat sloping stripes flipped between the sole & instep. We shall see since my second toe section is a tad bigger (I loosened up?) than my first.

Birthday Milestone

Happy birthday to monkey2! Time goes by so quickly. I had forgotten how tiny she was when she was born 'til monkey1 found a box of her infant clothes that we hadn't given away yet.


Trying to take a fun pic of my Rockin' Sock Club progress, but I don't think it turned out as funky as I wanted it to:

Details & comments so far:

Toes & heels on KP size 1 (2.50 mm) circ's. Initially started the toe on KP size 2's (3.00 mm) but they came out too wide. Nothing too traumatic for me on the provisional cast on and zipping the crochet chain off 'cept to say that last stitch is a pain to dig out & put on the needles. I had practiced toe up in St st, so the garter stitch wrap & turn was awkward to do. That and it's really hard to see the double (or even single sometimes) wrapped stitches in garter. I ended up having to count my rows to stay on track.

Foot is on KP size 0's (2.00 mm). Snug but not too constricting. Knitting it was relatively uneventful 'til I almost got to the end and stabbed one of my fingers w/the size 0 needles. Ow.

The leg: I began this section on the KP size 1's and got through a whole repeat just fine when trying them on my foot. Got to the 3rd cable set (halfway through the 2nd repeat) and had to really struggle to get the sock on and off! It felt a little snug on (not terribly so), but still I was concerned I'd rip my socks to shreds w/all that tugging. And gee, when Kaci wrote she likes her socks snug, she wasn't kidding! I've been wanting to knit Kaci's Cedar Creek socks pattern from last year's sock club in a different STR lightweight color, but I'm not so sure now. Or at least bump up my needle size from the 2.25 mm stated in the pattern to 2.50 mm.

In any case, I posted a question on the Rockin' Sock Club blog (they so need a bulletin board as trying research other knitter's experiences to see if they had the same problem is a big PITA) to see what my options would be. Got some replies, but I still went through a couple more iterations before I decided I think I have it. First iteration I tried the 3rd cable set on KP size 2's. Still too snug. Then my second iteration I frogged back to the second set of cables and started the KP size 2's there. This seems to work and you can see by the change in color striping/pooling where I switched from the 1's to 2's. (I'm also liking the color striping/patterning on the 2's better than the 0's & 1's, but that's the nature of hand-dyed yarn & differing gauge.)

Oh, and Cookie A has her patterns online now. So, I finally got my very own copy of the Twisted Flower pattern. Run, don't walk your fingers to her site!

Going crazy w/the sock knitting thing

Like no one's figured that out already. ;)

One down, one to go! I don't know why I worry about the second sock syndrome since I've got all that project management training and engineering background that's not about to let me have an orphan sock floating around for very long. In any case, the specs so far:

Pattern: Cookie A's BFF socks
size: Large
Yarn: Fleece Artist Polar Sea
Needles: Susan Bates size 1 (2.25 mm) from the sock set
Gauge: 8.5 st/in (purposely went a tad tighter 'cause of the yarn)
mod: the regular ole slip stitch heel flap instead of the St st Cookie calls out in the pattern. Messes w/the design aesthetic, but I was leery of the Fleece Artist holding up in the heel in just St st.


And check this out! While winding up my STR Monsoon, I found a knot. But it was almost halfway through so it serendipitously split my skein in half for me! I'll start w/the slightly larger cake/ball since I tend to use more yarn on my first sock than my second. (Tighter knitting? Faster knitting due to familiarity w/the pattern? Who knows?) So now I'm swatching the yarn on KP size 1 (2.50 mm) circs to see if I get the pattern gauge of 8 spi, which I think I am as I only have 1" so far. My previous experience w/STR medium weight has been w/KP size 2's (3.00 mm) and I got 6.5 spi (dpns) - 7 spi (circs).

ETA:

Apparently, when Kaci says large, she means bigger than my size 8.5, 9.5" circumferenced wide feet. So today I knitted the garter stitch toe on my KP size 2's and started 3 rows of the foot pattern on KP size 1's. With tapmouse out and blogless L busy, I didn't have someone to bounce off my misgivings that perhaps I'm knitting too large of a size halfway through the toe section. But I decided to plow on in case things tightened up sufficiently once I switched to the smaller needles for the foot. No such luck. So it looks like I'll frog this and start again tomorrow w/size 1 for the garter st toe.

Swatch the Monkey

Warning! If you don't want to be spoiled about the first STR Rockin' Sock Club package, don't scroll past the second pic.

When I first swatched Cookie A's Monkey pattern on my medium weight STR Peacock with KP size 2's (3.00 mm) dpn's to see if I could get a larger size, I found it was a bit too large/loose. So I bought some Susan Bates size 2's (2.75 mm) dpn's to swatch those. Well, tapmouse tells me the stitches on my Susan Bates swatch are smaller, but I'll be darned if they don't feel smaller. While the pattern stitches looks smaller, my ribbing seems looser. In any case, I think I've decided that my STR Peacock will not be morphing into a pair of Monkeys. While I like this pattern a lot, I don't like how the Peacock colors are coming out. I may swatch one of my other med wgt STR, probably Pisgah, into Monkeys and see if I like that better. Just as soon as I decide if I should go down another needle size to KP size 1's (2.50 mm).

In the meantime, I'm slowly continuing on my first BFF sock in Fleece Artist Polar Sea. I had hoped to finish this sock this past weekend in anticipation of my first STR Rockin' Sock Club package, but a nauseous migraine basically sidelined me. In any case, my package did not arrive 'til today. DH & monkey1 were home before me so monkey1 got to my sock package first! After a quick check of the USPS box to make sure she didn't miss anything, I checked out my stuff. So here it is my first STR club yarn & pattern...

and I'll be darned if my first Rockin' Sock Club pattern is toe up. Gah! Well, nothing like making myself practice toe ups on an adult size sock pattern. I am sorely tempted to change the both the heel & toes, but I did join the club to try patterns/methods I wouldn't otherwise try. If that doesn't work out, I can always frog and do a different toe & heel (the generic Diamante reverse heel flap?). And so I leave with the sock club obligatory pic of the skein opened up (check out that cute little emergency key chain skein). I so love Tina's color aesthetic!

Simple Knitted Bodice

I took these mirror pics this morning prior to doing my mu & hair, so they've got the obligatory cropped off head look.

Pattern - Simple Knitted Bodice by Stephanie Japel
needles - size 1 & 7 KP circs
Yarn - Brooks Farm Four Play (wool/silk) in Brown C (color not online)
mods -
Started w/the medium size but had to add another increase repeat to get the thing to fit over the shoulders & armholes which resulted in ending up in the large size at the arm separation point. Not a big deal as it would give me more arm room. So while I added length & short row shaping in the bodice section, I decreased the sides down so I only had 3 sts to decrease for the lace section, bringing me back to the medium size again. I fiddled around w/the neckline shaping when I finished the short rows, so it's not quite the same as the pattern.

And for some reason, I decided that I wanted Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) length sleeves. I suppose that if the impractical length really bugs me, I can always undo the bind off and take off some length later.

As I stated in a previous post, I forgot the last 5 rows of the neckline hem, but it does make it match the other hems better, and moved the lace panel on the sleeves down to be approximately the same level as the one on the sweater body.

Notice the transition from the first skein of the Brooks Farm Four Play into the next? Lame me didn't notice this 'til I finished the body. Was so not going to rip the darn thing again and alternate skeins. H-E-double hocky sticks-no. Just frickin' no.

So while I'm waiting for my first Rockin' Sock Club package (still working on my BFF sock though), I practiced the toe-up sock method w/tapmouse's leftover STR med wgt Fairgrounds. For one toddler sock I used Judy's magic cast on, a short row heel using misocrafty's tutorial, and the EZ sewn bind off. The other sock I used the short row toe & heel (but using a regular method like in Nancy Wiseman's Finishing Techniques book) and a regular bind off so I could compare different techniques. So, yup, the EZ sewn bind off is definitely stretchier. I'll probably undo the regular bind off sock & try the Russian or crocheted bind off.

All I can say at this point is that if I do the toe up method on an adult pair of socks, I'll probably want to do Judy's magic cast on and a reverse heel flap. I'm not too thrilled at the way my short rows look and it still doesn't eliminate the need to pick up an extra stitch to close the hole made at the heel.


Last month on my trip to Sacramento, I stopped by the Twisted Stitch & picked up a ball of Tofutsies. I had a hard time believing this thin yarn would knit up on size 2 (2.75 mm) needles and not be too loose 'til I saw a bunch of their sock samples at Stitches West. So off I swatched and I'll be darned! It's actually pretty nice on size 2's. However, I'm going to wait to knit these 'til SWTC releases their sock patterns (free?) on their website sometime after this week to see what they've got though I've seen some samples on their blog & in blogland.

And lastly, monkey1 and I are debating the color selection for her Modella Guiditta. This is what she wants, but I'm having heartburn over the Carribean Sea (blue) and Holly Green (all Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece) next to each other. I've tried subbing in other colors for the Carribean Blue from my Cotton Fleece stash, but it's hard to get agreement since I don't have every single color of theirs nor does she like what little leftover I have in the same gauge in other yarns in my stash. Then again, she did tell me she's the one wearing it, not me. :P Out of the mouth of babes...

Stitches West = SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)

But hey, I'm done knitting my Simple Knitted Bodice! It definitely needs to be washed and blocked as the double purl ridge hems are wanting to curl right at the transition. I'll post a modeled shot later when I can get Monkey1 to snap a pic.

Dets:
Pattern - Simple Knitted Bodice by Stephanie Japel
needles - size 1 & 7 KP circs
sweater size - a combo of the large & medium size as I have broad shoulders & other curves
mods/comments - short row shaping for the bust, mistakenly forgot 5 rows of the neckline hem, but it does make it match the other hems better, and moved the lace panel on the sleeves down to be approximately the same level as the one on the sweater body.

With the sweater done and my auto insurance deductible reimbursed, I was really ready for Stitches West! So, here's a peek at some of the stuff I bought:

I was a bad enabler and failed to convince tapmouse to hit Stitches West (SW) with me, but she did commission me to buy her Cookie A's pattern & hand-dyed yarn. (This obviously doesn't count towards my haul.)

And I can't buy her any Cookie A stuff w/o buying myself something. I had hit the BMFA booth first so by the time I hit the Bay Area Knitting Co-op booth, there were only 4 skeins of Cookie's hand-dyed left (Louet Gems Pearl base, BTW) and her Twisted Flower sock pattern was sold out 'til 4 pm (but I so could not stay that long!). I appeased myself w/a mostly green w/pink & mauve yarn and 2 of Cookie A's patterns.

And of course, I had to get other yarn (not just sock!) too. So in the pic below (in case I forget to bring it in to show tapmouse), the yarns are -

top: Shelridge Farms Peacock fingerling yarn
left to right: Brooks Farm Yarn Acero (wool, silk, viscose) in 2 different colors slated for shawls or scarves, Lisa Souza's new hardtwist merino yarn in Mardi Gras (though that's not what I picture Mardi Gras colors to be), Mountain Colors Weaver Wool Quarters in Painted Rocks (Wool-Gatherers LLC's sock yarn sale), and Baywood Yarns superwash merino in Aurora Borealis, a local dyer's product sold at Nine Rubies in San Mateo.

And now, most of my BMFA Socks that Rock haul:
Patterns: Cookie A's shawl(ette?) pattern in Bambu and a new STR sock pattern
Left to right all lightweight: Little Bunny Foo Foo, Footzey-Foo, new to me Smokey Blue, Tide Pool (but you can see this on flickr.com & the Rockin' Sock Club blog), and Algae.

BMFA didn't have very much medium weight 'cept in the fair isle sets and in a basket of sock club extra skeins (Pink Granite & Fairgrounds). Kaci told me they were low in stock on their medium weight base yarn. They also had heavyweight, Seduction (mmmm!), Geisha (more mmmmm!), the other fuzzy lace yarn that I forget the name of, the twist yarn and Bambu. I was good and didn't buy any Seduction & Bambu which was hard 'cause they had 2 colors unfamiliar to me (Rock Creek and Dark Horse) that wasn't in the light or heavyweight sock yarns. Sigh. And Spring Fling looked so, so cute in Bambu. But I did manage to stay close enough to my BMFA budgeted amount.

Truth be told, my prep for Stitches West started a wee bit early. Last weekend I headed over to Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos (place of the Bay Area Yarn Harlot signing) after e-mailing Hollis back and forth about her having the Fleece Artist Merino in Seashore. I've been wanting Seashore for awhile, especially when the one I got from an online store looked way more like Hercules. Hollis told me she also had Seashore in the new Sea Wool as well. Well, we didn't find the Seashore in merino, but Hollis was kind enough to sell the Sea Wool to me early and I'm glad she did. When I stopped by their booth today, there was precious little of the Sea Wool left and definitely none of the Seashore. This stuff feels yummy!


So my yarn buying itch has been sufficiently scratched and I will be good for awhile. Mainly 'cause I need to shift my yarn money over in my budget to help a couple family members w/things.

Now off to knit a bunch of swatches so I figure out which slew of socks and things to knit next!

Project Spectrum Feb update

My 2 Noro Kochoran skeins have been all used up! Now to figure out who I'll give these to.

Feather & Fan Scarf from the Little Box of Scarves
Less than 2 skeins
size 10.5 needles
unblocked = 6"x83"


Because whoever I might give the scarf to may be okay w/a long scarf, but not a super long one, I knitted a Calorimetry from the other end. Since my first Calorimetry was too loose and the Kochoran being thicker than the Silk Garden, I cast on only 80 sts per discussions on the knitty board and repeated row 5 about 9 times more I think. I have basic black button to sew on still. The scarf is still plenty long as the Calorimetry took a lot less yarn than I had hoped it would, but I didn't feel like knitting a 3rd one.

Both Noro pieces will get washed & blocked when the weather dries & warms back up again. The wash is more to get any twiggy bits out I may have missed than it is to soften it up. The Kochoran is a lot softer than the Silk Garden I had used for my Clapotis, but it wouldn't hurt to give them a wash before they get gifted out.

My other PS knit has been rather neglected, so I hope to get to these BFF socks next, especially now that I've finished one sleeve on my SKB and started the other. I hope I can finish my SKB by the time I hit Stitches West on Friday. If I get the SKB done, I'll only have 1 project on the needles before my first Rockin' Sock Club package. After Stitches West, I can then figure out what my 3rd project will be, but it may most likely be that kiddie capelet thingie in Feb Magknits that I can't spell, much less pronounce.

Ready for Christmas 2007?

Not! But my Retro Rib socks in STR Christmas Balls are. Whee!


Pattern: Retro Ribs - Interweave Knits (IK) Winter 2004 (& now the IK Favorite Socks book)
Yarn: Socks that Rock Christmas Balls
Needle size: KP size 1 (2.50 mm) dpn's & circs

Notes/Comments:
The cuff/leg has been modified to be 6" vs the 8" in the pattern. The left foot is looser than the right because I screwed up and didn't reduce down the last 2 stitches for the gusset, so I reduced them in the toe area which is when I discovered my error. I'm going to try to wear them for a day w/the bigger one on the left foot since it's bigger and see if I can live w/it. Otherwise, it will be a PITA to frog back all the way to the gusset.

And now that I've got the size 1 circs free, I can continue on w/the sleeve of my SKB. Nothing more motivating than to free up my needles to knit up sweater sleeves. I so don't want to be stuck in sleeve purgatory from the lack of the right needle size & length.

And here's 1 skein of Noro Kochoran #21 in the Feather & Fan scarf (roughly 54" already), one of my Feb/Mar Project Spectrum projects. I was duly warned that 2 skeins would make for a really long scarf, but I really want to get rid of this yarn. I may try to knit up all of the second skein if the itching doesn't drive me mad so I can gift this away to someone who not only likes angora, but also likes really long scarves. I hope to finish this by the end of the week. Not only do I want to make room for stuff I'll get from Stitches West, but I would like to get things off the needle in preparation for my first STR Club package.

ETA: Doh! Calorimetry! Heh, it took 2 discussions w/my knitter friends at work to realize that I can stop the scarf when I think it's long enough (74"?). I can then knit up a Calorimetry w/maybe 94 or 90 sts w/the remaining Kochoran. My 108 st Silk Garden one's a little loose so hopefully a shorter one will work. Plus, I'll have 2 gifts to give away instead of one. Now I'm content w/the solution.

Four projects on the needles was one too many for me, so I'm glad the socks are done. Hopefully the scarf will be next and then the SKB.

I'm still having fun w/the Polar Sea socks because its my first cable project. I'm using Cookie A's BFF pattern. And gee, now I understand why knitters prefer cabling w/o a cabling needle. It's a PITA to handle 4-5 dpns plus a cabling needle. So much hardware I had no room for my fingers!

Yarn regret?

Not sure if I should laugh about this or cry, but last summer, my friend L & I made several trips to Article Pract to ponder what sale yarns to get, especially the Noro. I fell in total love w/colorway #21. 'Cept in the Iro, not the Kochoran. I don't remember my rationale other than I didn't want something so bulky as Iro to knit into whatever, so I chose the thinner Kochoran in the same colorway. Sure, the royal blue portion wasn't the same in Kochoran as it was in Iro, but I thought, eh, close enough. Little did I know that when I started knitting the Kochoran, the angora would annoy the heck out of me. I suppose I should be grateful it's only making my exposed arms itch and not inducing my asthma, but I am bummed that this scarf I had intended for myself will be gifted away to someone who does like angora. Next sale, I'm going to follow my initial feeling, and go for the Iro.


And in other ambivalent knitting news, I've finally made it through the cheveron lace section and bookin' through the hip shaping on my SKB. I think I won't need to add to the 5 rows of straight knitting in bottom portion before I finish off w/the purl border as I think it'll be long enough. Apparently the majority of my torso length is above the bust line, not below it, proportionally speaking.

The photo monkey1 took of me makes the sweater look like it fits okay, but it's hard to tell w/the neckline curling in. After all the drama I generated in adjusting the bodice portion, it feels a little loose. And nothing like getting the Michelin Man effect in having the chevron lace section highlight my muffin belly (I've been slacking on the gym time mightily). Of course, I shouldn't be surprised that knitting a light worsted weight yarn on size 1 needles would give a corset effect. I probably won't do that again as it's not good for the wrists either, even with a nice yarn.

It's a "collection"

So, the knitty.com article got me thinking, why are knitters concerned about the stash we accumulate when others think nothing of their CD/music collection, their electronic games, or other "stuff." Is it simply because most knitters are of the female gender? But then, look at Imelda Marcos w/her shoes or women w/a closet-full of designer handbags. Or for that matter, me pre-knitting, with my Stila and Nars collection. Did I angst over having too much makeup? Hell no!

The only thing I had angst about was that I didn't use up certain favorite lipsticks or lipglosses before they went bad (ie dry up, get funky smelling, change color). But did I beat myself up for it? Hell no again! Instead, I and other mu addicts on certain mu boards lamented how certain brands couldn't manufacture their lipsticks/lippies from going bad too quickly. And if that dc'd blush or e/s still worked after more than 2 years, more power to that mu item.

So I've gotten a personal resolve never ever to feel guilt over my stash unless it's the guilt of not having enough time to knit with them. That said, after Stitches West at the end of this month and all my BMFA's orders (not even mentioning the sock club, but that's 1 skein every 2 months), I should be good for awhile (ie a vaguely defined amount of time that seems long enough).

Anyway, because I couldn't decide on what my next order from BMFA's website would be (I knew it would be Barney Rubble, but not in med weight 'cause they said the dye for some reason didn't look good in that yarn :p, Thistle, and GRocks 'cept I couldn't decide on what weight for either), I ended up ordering some medium weight from The Fold to knit at least one of them into Cookie A's Monkey socks. L to R: Citrine ('cause I love tapmouse's), Pisgah (an interesting combo of my color preferences), and Peacock, which ended up being more teal and burgundy that I anticipated, but still good.

And finally I finished my first STR Christmas Balls Retro Rib sock. I cast on for the second one along w/the blue (Polar Sea?) Fleece Artist merino for Project Spectrum (it is February after all). I hope to finish the second Retro Rib sock much faster if I don't get too sidetracked w/Project Spectrum.
And there's still my darn SKB. After 3 misfires, I'm well on my way into the chevron lace panel. After the first misfire, I did swatch another skein of the Brooks Farm yarn on KP size 1 & 2 circs because I was concerned about the abuse the yarn took from being moved over the join on my Boyes circs and that I wasn't really getting the pattern gauge I originally got on my swatch. The KP size 2 (3.00 mm) was of course, a tad too big, but the KP size 1 (2.50 mm) on 32" circs (bought in case I want to try the Magic Loop method for socks) worked really well. But now the only issue is that my row gauge is so small that I've got to add quite a few more rows to make the 3" panel. On the plus side, it'll make me think the rest of the sweater back on size 7's will go really, really fast.

'Cause it's YPF

l to r: Velvet Moon, Blue Brick Wall, Pixie Park (all lightweight)

While talking to BMFA's to re-pay my sock club fee, I somehow got into special ordering a few colors. Little did tapmouse know what a sock-knitting-STR-hoarding fool I would become. And little did I know how out of control my yarn stash would get once I got into sock yarn. I've been relatively good on buying yarn for non-sock projects 'cause I need a pattern to motivate me to buy yarn, even if it's good yarn at a good sale price, but apparently, buying sock yarn is like buying lip gloss or green e/s for me and I have no control. ('Cept makeup's smaller & easier to hide and I buy less of it 'cause Nars 'aint cheap.)


But I am trying to knit my stash away, even my STR. I finally got to the heel & past it (barely) on my STR Christmas Balls Retro Rib sock this week. At 6", this is the longest/cuff leg for me yet (and that's 2" short of the pattern's called for 8"). The slowness of this knit probably wasn't helped by the fact that I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to do these socks w/dpn's or circs. I started w/dpn's, switched to circs when I got my order (for the exercise), thought it took too long (hah!), switched back to dpn's for a couple rows, decided my gauge was too loose on dpn's to match the circs and I actually liked the circs better for this pattern, so I switched again. My second sock is so not going to match the first 'cause I played the needle switcheroo game too much on the first one.

And look! I'm slowly moving forward on my SKB. I finished the short row shaping and made a better 2nd attempt at reducing the sides (at least it looks marginally better). I have 4 more rows of the body to do before I join in the round and switch to my Boyes size 2 (2.75 mm) interchangeable circs for the lace section. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to sliding the yarn past the joins on my Boyes. Even if I swatched to see if I could get gauge on KP size 2's (3.oo mm), I don't have KP size 2 circs that are long enough (they were bought for socks after all). We'll see how much I'll regret not having a large needle stash.

A short detour back into crochet

By persistent and numerous requests:
Pattern: Crochet Mary Jane Slippers
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash Red Pepper (under 1 skein)
Hook size: K
Mods: add extra rows to the foot area to fit monkey1's foot

Comments:
I originally started with a copy of the pattern that was printed in my 2006 Crochet a Day calendar and found 1 typo and massive confusion about the strap. I found the designer's blog but no errata in very, very brief search. Deciding it would take me longer to find it online than to figure it out myself, I went ahead with the strap. It took me 2 tries before I figured what the error in the pattern was. Talk about rusty w/my crochet skills!


And here's one of my Project Spectrum projects for Feb/March. The yarn's Noro Kochoran #21. There's a hint of lilac-y pink in there, but it's mostly blue & gray. I originally intended to do the Mistake Rib scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts 'cept I saw one on a blog somewhere and decided it was way too narrow and that I wasn't in the mood to widen it or knit my Kochoran into a rib pattern.

As for my SKB, I finally added in my short rows and did an on-the-fly attempt at shaping the sides at the same time to get back down to the medium size past the bodice. The short rows went well. The side shaping did not. It looks like crap 'cause I didn't work it out beforehand. I should rip back and do the side shaping properly, but I so want to move forward and just get it over with. I even started the lace pattern section, but I should really listen to myself and stop. Which is probably why I made monkey1's slippers, so I could get my FO itch scratched.

So back to socks it is til I motivate myself to do the SKB properly. But it won't be the toe-up STR Fairgrounds for awhile. It looks like I won't have enough for monkey1's size, so I'll have to frog it and make monkey2 a pair. I'll still do toe up, but I'll try provisional on one and Judy's magic cast on w/the other. Both heels will be short row, but there are 2 slightly varying methods I' want to try. It's not like my younger monkey is going to care.

Pretty in pink

Pattern: Girl's Anklet Socks in Vogue Knitting on the Go Socks Two
Yarn: Louet Gems Opal Pink Panther from Yarn's (in Alameda) closing sale
Needle size: KP size 1 (2.50 mm) dpns

A very cute, girly, quick pair of socks to make. Monkey1 has already outgrown her Dublin Bay socks, so I need to undo the toes and add another 0.5-1.0 in to the foot w/a second skein of Claudia's Handpainted. So much for trying to stick to one skein!

I do need to get back to my STR x-mas ball Retro Rib socks, but I've been sidetracked in trying up the toe-up method using Judy's magic cast on and tapmouse's left-over STR Fairgrounds (med wgt) from the STR Sock Club. I initially tried this method w/a set of dpn's and it was ugly and went nowhere fast. Then I did try again w/a provisional cast on, but messed up on the size, so ripped back again.

I'm knitting socks for monkey1 'cept she doesn't like this colorway!!!! I suppose I could rip back & size it down for monkey2, but I simply don't feel like it. I'll probably finish and save them for when monkey2 does grow big enough for them.

But I love the Fairgrounds color so much I got the lightweight for one of my April/May Project Spectrum projects. By that point I'll have figured out what pattern to use as I don't want to use the STR Sock Club Rock and Weave pattern since that's done w/the medium weight. It's a cute pattern though.

Two fish...

2 fish, originally uploaded by crochet_chick.

now I have a pair of blue fish! (Apologies to Dr. Seuss.)

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A published in knitty.com
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Jay, 1 skein, 100 g/294 yd
Needles: KP size 1 (2.50 mm) dpns
Mod: omitted last repeat of Chart A (leg)

I finally finished these socks w/a little bit of yarn to spare. I was definitely nervous about running out of yarn halfway through knitting the second sock. I was starting to knit tighter on the second sock because of it, but not too much as there's negligible difference in feel between the two socks.

I'm glad I chose to finally knit these socks in the yarn tapmouse gifted me as it reminds me of our Thanksgiving visit to Hawaii, especially our trip to the Maui Ocean Center.

Next up - back to the STR Christmas Balls Retro Rib sock that I started x-mas day, monkey2's second pink sock from a pattern in the second little Vogue sock book, and my darn SKB that I need to calculate and knit my darts into. :P I am so tempted to cast on another sock, but I can't decide what yarn in my stash to play with.